Glass museum archive task
A worker is to be employed to catalogue an archive of artefacts and documents on a Black Country town's glass industry which were collected by a historian – because it is so vast.
A worker is to be employed to catalogue an archive of artefacts and documents on a Black Country town's glass industry which were collected by a historian – because it is so vast.
Most of the collection, compiled over decades by Stourbridge's Jack Haden, was bought by Kingswinford's Broadfield House Glass Museum at auction. While staff will do a basic catalogue someone will have to be employed especially to archive it properly.
The material, sold for more than £20,000, is believed to one of the most extensive on the industry.
Read the full story in the Express & Star.
A worker is to be employed to catalogue an archive of artefacts and documents on a Black Country town's glass industry which were collected by a historian – because it is so vast.
Most of the collection, compiled over decades by Stourbridge's Jack Haden, was bought by Kingswinford's Broadfield House Glass Museum at auction. While staff will do a basic catalogue someone will have to be employed especially to archive it properly.
The material, sold for more than £20,000, is believed to one of the most extensive on the industry.
Most of the collection has gone to the borough archives in Coseley but the museum kept a selection to display.
Eventually all of it will go to the archive, where they can be accessed by the public. Museum spokesman Roger Dodsworth said: "We will be able to do what is known as a box list, a basic list of artefacts and documents in the collection which will be posted on the internet so people can see what is there. However, someone will have to be taken on especially to catalogue it properly as there is so much to sort through.
"To do it justice it will take someone working full time months to catalogue the collection. That is the scale of this archive.
They would ask independent bodies to fund a staff member. People can see a selection at the museum for the next few months. The collection includes items such as an original working drawing by John Northwood, one of the most important glass artists.
There is also a small original recipe book for glassmaking published in the 19th century. Bids for the collection came from around the world. Mr Haden worked as a journalist from the age of 17, interrupted only as he served in a field ambulance division of the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War. His knowledge led to him being dubbed "a walking encyclopedia of Stourbridge". He died in 2005.
